IR LED | Infrared LED | Infrared Sensor

An Infrared light-emitting diode (IR LED) is a special purpose LED emitting infrared rays
ranging from 700 nm to 1 mm wavelength. Different IR LEDs may produce infrared light of
differing wavelengths, just like different LEDs produce light of different colors.

IR LEDs are usually made of gallium arsenide or aluminium gallium arsenide. In complement
with IR receivers, these are commonly used as sensors.

The appearance of IR LED is same as a common LED. Since the human eye cannot see the
infrared radiations, it is not possible for a person to identify if an IR LED is working. A camera
on a cell phone camera solves this problem. The IR rays from the IR LED in the circuit are
shown in the camera.

Pin Diagram of IR LED

An IR LED is a type of diode or simple semiconductor. Electric current is allowed to flow in

only one direction in diodes. As the current flows, electrons fall from one part of the diode into
holes on another part. In order to fall into these holes, the electrons must shed energy in the form
of photons, which produce light.

It is necessary to modulate the emission from IR diode to use it in electronic application to

prevent spurious triggering. Modulation makes the signal from IR LED stand out above the
noise. Infrared diodes have a package that is opaque to visible light but transparent to infrared.
The massive use of IR LEDs in remote controls and safety alarm systems has drastically reduced
the pricing of IR diodes in the market.

IR sensor

An IR sensor is an electronic device that detects IR radiation falling on it. Proximity

sensors (used in touchscreen phones and edge avoiding robots), contrast sensors (used in line
following robots) and obstruction counters/sensors (used for counting goods and in burglar
alarms) are some applications involving IR sensors.

Principle of Working
An IR sensor consists of two parts, the emitter circuit and the receiver circuit. This is
collectively known as a photo-coupler or an optocoupler.

The emitter is an IR LED and the detector is an IR photodiode. The IR phototdiode is sensitive to
the IR light emitted by an IR LED. The photo-diode’s resistance and output voltage change in
proportion to the IR light received. This is the underlying working principle of the IR sensor.

The type of incidence can be direct incidence or indirect incidence. In direct incidence, the IR
LED is placed in front of a photodiode with no obstacle in between. In indirect incidence, both
the diodes are placed side by side with an opaque object in front of the sensor. The light from the
IR LED hits the opaque surface and reflects back to the photodiode.
Step by step details to build an IR sensor are available at: DIY- IR Sensor

IR sensors find a wide variety of applications in various fields. Let’s take a look at few of them.

Proximity Sensors

Proximity sensors employ reflective indirect incidence principle. The photodiode receives the
radiation emitted by the IR LED once reflected back by the object. Closer the object, higher will
be the intensity of the incident radiation on the photodiode. This intensity is converted to voltage
to determine the distance.

Proximity sensors find use in touchscreen phones, among other devices. The display
is disabled during calls, so that even if the cheek makes contact with the touchscreen, there is no
effect.

What is an IR Sensor/Infrared Sensor?

An infrared sensor is an electronic device, that emits in order to sense some aspects of the
surroundings. An IR sensor can measure the heat of an object as well as detects the motion.
These types of sensors measure only infrared radiation, rather than emitting it that is called
a passive IR sensor. Usually, in the infrared spectrum, all the objects radiate some form of
thermal radiation.

Infrared Sensor

These types of radiations are invisible to our eyes, which can be detected by an infrared sensor.
The emitter is simply an IR LED (Light Emitting Diode) and the detector is simply an IR
photodiode that is sensitive to IR light of the same wavelength as that emitted by the IR LED.
When IR light falls on the photodiode, the resistances and the output voltages will change in
proportion to the magnitude of the IR light received.
Working Principle

The working principle of an infrared sensor is similar to the object detection sensor. This sensor
includes an IR LED & an IR Photodiode, so by combining these two can be formed as a photo-
coupler otherwise optocoupler. The physics laws used in this sensor are planks radiation,
Stephan Boltzmann & weins displacement.

IR LED is one kind of transmitter that emits IR radiations. This LED looks similar to a standard
LED and the radiation which is generated by this is not visible to the human eye. Infrared
receivers mainly detect the radiation using an infrared transmitter. These infrared receivers are
available in photodiodes form. IR Photodiodes are dissimilar as compared with usual
photodiodes because they detect simply IR radiation. Different kinds of infrared receivers mainly
exist depending on the voltage, wavelength, package, etc.

Once it is used as the combination of an IR transmitter & receiver, then the receiver’s
wavelength must equal the transmitter. Here, the transmitter is IR LED whereas the receiver is
IR photodiode. The infrared photodiode is responsive to the infrared light that is generated
through an infrared LED. The resistance of photo-diode & the change in output voltage is in
proportion to the infrared light obtained. This is the IR sensor’s fundamental working principle.

Once the infrared transmitter generates emission, then it arrives at the object & some of the
emission will reflect back toward the infrared receiver. The sensor output can be decided by the
IR receiver depending on the intensity of the response.

Types of Infrared Sensor

Infrared sensors are classified into two types like active IR sensor and passive IR sensor.

Active IR Sensor

This active infrared sensor includes both the transmitter as well as the receiver. In most of the
applications, the light-emitting diode is used as a source. LED is used as a non-imaging infrared
sensor whereas the laser diode is used as an imaging infrared sensor.

These sensors work through energy radiation, received & detected through radiation. Further, it
can be processed by using the signal processor to fetch the necessary information. The best
examples of this active infrared sensor are reflectance and break beam sensor.

Passive IR Sensor

The passive infrared sensor includes detectors only but they don’t include a transmitter. These
sensors use an object like a transmitter or IR source. This object emits energy and detects
through infrared receivers. After that, a signal processor is used to understand the signal to obtain
the required information.
The best examples of this sensor are pyroelectric detector, bolometer, thermocouple-thermopile,
etc. These sensors are classified into two types like thermal IR sensor and quantum IR sensor.
The thermal IR sensor doesn’t depend on wavelength. The energy source used by these sensors is
heated. Thermal detectors are slow with their response and detection time. The quantum IR
sensor depends on the wavelength and these sensors include high response and detection time.
These sensors need regular cooling for specific measurements.

IR Sensor Circuit Diagram

An infrared sensor circuit is one of the basic and popular sensor modules in an electronic device.
This sensor is analogous to human’s visionary senses, which can be used to detect obstacles and
it is one of the common applications in real-time. This circuit comprises the following
components
 LM358 IC 2 IR transmitter and receiver pair
 Resistors of the range of kilo-ohms.
 Variable resistors.
 LED (Light Emitting Diode).

Infrared Sensor Circuit Diagram

In this project, the transmitter section includes an IR sensor, which transmits continuous IR rays
to be received by an IR receiver module. An IR output terminal of the receiver varies depending
upon its receiving of IR rays. Since this variation cannot be analyzed as such, therefore this
output can be fed to a comparator circuit. Here an operational amplifier (op-amp) of LM 339 is
used as a comparator circuit.
When the IR receiver does not receive a signal, the potential at the inverting input goes higher
than that non-inverting input of the comparator IC (LM339). Thus the output of the comparator
goes low, but the LED does not glow. When the IR receiver module receives a signal to the
potential at the inverting input goes low. Thus the output of the comparator (LM 339) goes high
and the LED starts glowing.

Resistor R1 (100 ), R2 (10k ), and R3 (330) are used to ensure that a minimum of 10 mA current
passes through the IR LED Devices like Photodiode and normal LEDs respectively. Resistor
VR2 (preset=5k ) is used to adjust the output terminals. Resistor VR1 (preset=10k ) is used to set
the sensitivity of the circuit Diagram.